For the past 3 months Dr Trudie Walters from Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University in Aotearoa New Zealand has been a Visiting Scholar in the CCSE at UWS. She has been exploring the importance of Special Olympics involvement for intellectually disabled athletes, along with their wider network of family, coaches, club administrators and other volunteers, and support workers. In this blog post, she tells us a little about the project…
Special Olympics is a global organisation, and it was officially established in Great Britain in 1978. It gives people with intellectual disabilities or learning disabilities a chance to take part in sport, offering 27 sports to over 12,500 athletes across Scotland, Wales and England. There is a competition pathway for registered athletes to progress through local, regional and national level events – there are also international competitions including the Special Olympics World Games. Indeed, the World Games is one of the world’s biggest sporting events, with more athletes and more sports than the Paralympic Games. Yet, despite attracting 7,000 competitors from 170 countries to Berlin in 2023, it received a fraction of the media attention of the Paralympics in Paris a year later.
Trudie interviewed 24 athletes, family members, support workers, coaches and other volunteers in Scotland and England, representing 10 sports, and was a regular attendee at weekly training sessions in Glasgow. Her early analysis finds that engaging in sports through Special Olympics has enduring benefits – not only for the athletes, but also for coaches and other volunteers. Athletes said they are fitter and healthier, and some are now more able to manage mental health challenges that come with their disability such as depression and anxiety. The inclusive nature of Special Olympics (through a carefully designed ‘divisioning’ system) enables athletes to compete against others of the same ability, making for equitable and meaningful competition – this, along with skill development in their chosen sport, gives a real sense of accomplishment. The majority of athletes also felt a sense of identity and belonging that was not replicated in other mainstream sports settings. Almost all of the athletes had gained transferable skills that were valuable in gaining employment or volunteering roles.
Many of the coaches reported enjoying having to think ‘outside the box’ to help athletes achieve their full potential, noting a real sense of satisfaction in learning new skills and knowledge, and saying it made them both a better coach and a better person. Other volunteers found meaning and purpose through their involvement with Special Olympics, and appreciated being able to use their talents to advance a worthy organisation – whether through financial, administrative, governance work on committees or clubs, or just helping out in any way they can. Trudie is looking forward to continuing the analysis, and reporting the findings back to the participants and Special Olympics Great Britain. She has already presented tentative findings at the Leisure Studies Association conference in York (UK) and the World Leisure Congress in Breda (Netherlands).
She would like to thank the team at CCSE for hosting her and making her feel so welcome – especially Professor David McGillivray who has been her sponsor. She would also like to thank the Faculty of Environment, Society and Design at Lincoln University for the Research Fellowship that supported this work. Lastly, she would like to say a very big thanks to all her research participants who generously shared their experiences, and to Special Olympics Great Britain for their enthusiasm for the project.
Leave a Reply